Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

When students think of what you would like to do for the summer, what comes to mind? Go to the beach, sleep in late, be grateful that you don’t have to attend summer and intercession classes or start a new workout routine.

For the past two of my summers, the answer has always been for this writer: “I want to go someplace I’ve never been before.”

Last summer, I attended the UNO-Japan program in Kyoto to study at the Doshisha University. The Doshisha University offered many courses in Japanese language, art, film, photography and Honors options for most courses. As part of the program, my fellow students and I were able to see the key sights of Kyoto like the Nijo-jo (Nijo Castle). I also had the chance to visit South Korea after the program.

This summer I decided that I wanted to see Turkey, especially since I had decided to study there for the fall semester, which has now extended into a full academic year.

View from the top of Yeditepe’s law building.

Turkey is rather tritely known as the place where East meets West. This little cliché is largely true in the culture capital of Istanbul, the largest city in Europe and the only city in the world to geographically span two continents.

Istanbul is the city I will call home for the next year while I am on this study abroad program, particularly the Yeditepe University. Yeditepe is Turkish for “seven hills”.

Istanbul offers some of the most historic sites in the world including the 400 year-old Sultanahmet (better known as the Blue Mosque), the almost 600 year-old Topkapı Palace and the 550 year-old Grand Bazaar that boasts over 3,000 shops with an untold diversity of wares.

But this city is not only about the ancient. Istanbul is an industrial city with the entire gamut of modern conveniences at its disposal with malls and nightlife (whose center on the European side is Taksim) and entertainment galore.

I arrived in Turkey three months before my program began to get a feel of the country, particularly the people. In the course of my stay, I have visited the capital, Ankara, another historical town called Bursa in the rural northeast in a village called Hemşin.

Despite seeing the burial place of Kemal Atatürk, someone that I can only very loosely describe as Turkey’s version of George Washington, and vast tea farms in a valley, the most impressive part of Turkey is the people.

Hospitality is taken to levels that the South could learn from and many of the citizens are inspiring in their own right.

I met a group of students through Couch Surfing in Ankara that started their own business in search engine optimization. I also met a man in Hemşin that was an environmental crusader. His specialty was fighting the government’s ambitious damming projects that threatened the tea-making livelihood of many of the villagers in the area.

Turkey is very much a country where many things are happening, and quickly. I have learned these things, and more, in little less than three months with over ten more months to go.

The purpose of this article will hopefully spark a series of essays to appear in “Driftwood” about studying abroad from not only myself but also other students that have completed programs abroad.

These informative essays will help educate new and current UNO students about what there is to gain by traveling and studying abroad from a summer to a semester to possibly an entire year.

I will be giving you my perspective from Turkey, complete with essays on the many places to visit and opinions on the culture and the politics.

If you would like to study abroad, please email the Division of International Education at isp@uno.edu or drop by their office inside the Education Building, office 120, for more information.

If you have any questions about studying abroad or traveling in Turkey, feel free to contact me at jleblue@uno.edu.

Photo courtesy of Brodie LeBlue/Driftwood.

via Once Upon a Time in Anatolia.